Sen. Hiram Monserrate's legal fund challenged

Associated PressSen. Hiram Monserrate was convicted of misdemeanor assault and could face up to a year in jail at sentencing Dec. 4

ALBANY -- While government watchdog groups called today for an investigation of a convicted state senator's legal defense fund, another New York lawmaker said he's drafting legislation to clearly outlaw such funds for legislators charged with crimes.

Sen. Neil Breslin, an Albany Democrat, said he'll be asking other lawmakers to pass his bill to ban the funds.

Citizens Union and three other groups asked the Legislative Ethics Commission today to force Sen. Hiram Monserrate to disclose names and contributions to his defense fund and issue a binding opinion that the 2007 ethics law prohibits legislators from receiving gifts, including fund contributions.

"We believe the Legislature effectively banned gifts in the form of legal defense funds in 2007," they wrote.

In a statement earlier this week, executive director Lisa Reid said that since its establishment in 2007, the commission has neither received nor given any opinions about such funds. There was no immediate commission response to the complaint today.

Those advisory opinions, including any issued by the previous Legislative Ethics Committee, are typically kept confidential.

Monserrate, D-Queens, faces sentencing Dec. 4 for a conviction of misdemeanor assault against his girlfriend. With legal fees at a half-million dollars and growing, a defense fund was established. His attorney, Joseph Tacopina, said he did not know who was contributing.

A call to Monserrate was not immediately returned.

Breslin, a former prosecutor, said he'd thought such funds for lawmakers were illegal but was recently told they weren't. The problem is that a big lobbyist or someone who wants to influence a lawmaker could secretly contribute, he said.

"We want, retroactive, the names of all persons that have contributed to those funds," Breslin said.

Former Republican Sen. Majority Leader Joseph Bruno has a legal defense fund. He faces trial, starting Monday, on federal corruption charges. Bruno retired in July 2008, aware of the federal investigation that began more than two years earlier and involved grand jury testimony by many of his associates. He also has used campaign funds to pay legal bills.

In 2004, then-state Sen. Guy Velella used campaign funds and donations from the campaign committees of Bruno and other GOP senators to help pay his legal bills. Velella, a Bronx Republican, eventually went to jail after pleading guilty to a charge of conspiring to accept bribes.